CM determined to set up chemical hub in Nandigram: Kshiti Goswami

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Created on : 11/17/2007 2:01:20 PM (NORMAL )

West Midnapore, Nov 17 (UNI) RSP leader and State PWD Minister Kshiti Goswami today alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is determined to set up a chemical hub in Nandigram.

''In spite of assurance by the Chief Minister that no chemical hub would be built here, secret preparations were on to have it set up in Nandigram itself,'' the RSP leader said.

''The CPI(M) activists have taken control of Nandigram. The BUPC supporters have been driven out and I have confidential information that they will finally settle in Nayachar Island, leaving the fate of Nandigram to be decided by the CPI(M) cadres,'' Mr Goswami maintained.

He was talking to newspersons at the PWD Guest House here this morning. He had been attending a two-day district conference of the RSP in Midnapore town.

Coming down heavily on Mr Bhattacharjee, Mr Goswami said the Chief Minister's party was following the ''Chinese form of Communism'', while forcibly taking over land from the poor farmers.

''Of late, the Chief Minister and his men have been staunch followers of the Chinese model of communism. In China, millions of farmers had been killed in the 60,000-odd riots, while snatching away their land,'' he said.

Mr Goswami, who is a core committee member of the State Cabinet, pointed that the State government was determined to setting up a Hub in Nandigram, in spite of recommendations by the committee to avoid the project taking over multi-cropping land.

''Since the mini-Front members were a majority in the Core Committee, two more ministers Kiranmoy Nanda and Pratim Chattarjee have been recently inducted into their side to gain majority,'' Mr Goswami alleged.

He further maintained, ''Stories of induction of Maoists were nothing but lies to mislead the people of the state.'' Mr Goswami said he will go through the deliberations of all the district conferences of the party beginning with Midnapore, before reconsidering his withdrawal from the Ministry.


The news, notwithstanding the somewhat clumsy reportage, seems to point to a very real threat.

Remember that Buddhadev Bhattacharya said, "There shall be no chemical hub in Nandigram unless the people there want it".

The operative part of the sentence is "...unless the people there want it".

Therefore, if the people there can somehow be shown wanting it and the government goes forward with its plans of erecting a chemical hub at Nandigram, then it can be argued the CM is not contradicting his assertion.

I was in Nandigram yesterday (18.11.2007) with a team carrying relief for the victims of CPI (M) assault and mayhem. What we witnessed at Sonachura market is a climate of pure and unmitigated terror amongst the villagers who were still there in the village. There is a possibility that the people in Nandigram will be terrorised into exhibiting their consent to the government's plan of setting up a chemical hub, unless the spirit of the people continues to simmer even under unbelievably trying circumstances.

Civil society needs to be on its alert.

Santanu Chacraverti